Thursday, December 31, 2015

I’m blogging out of order because I had made this earlier
but didn’t want to put it up ahead of the other recipes since this one didn’t
turn out as well as it should have. That was entirely my fault. I didn’t bake
it long enough because the toothpick came out clean when I poked it in the
center of the cake yet I knew it wasn’t done. The cake looked too heavy and
didn’t have a spring to it when I touched it lightly on top. But I have such a
habit of relying on the toothpick test because I didn’t time it when I put it
in the oven so I didn’t know how long it had been baking for and I have an
abhorrence of dry, overbaked cakes that I decided to err on the side of caution
and pulled it out.

Since the recipe calls for glazing the cake while it’s
still warm, I couldn’t even rectify my mistake once I’d discovered it with the
taste test. Because you can’t re-bake a frosted cake. In my defense, those
first few bites were amazing. I shared forkfuls with my nieces after the warm
cake had been newly frosted and we all had big eyes and our forks ready for the
next bite. We started at the corner and edges which were the most baked so my
underbaking failure wasn’t immediately apparent.

But once the cake had cooled, it was apparent I should’ve
left this in the oven awhile longer. The texture once you go towards the middle
of the cake becomes more dense. It wasn’t raw but it didn’t have a cakey
texture either, more like a fudge texture. Which would’ve been okay if I had
been baking fudge brownies but not so good with a cake.

Which is a shame because flavor-wise, this was a very
good cake. Very good. So good that I need to make it again and bake it properly
this time because, seriously, did I mention it was really good?

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

This is one of those recipes where you should click on
the title of the blog post to go to the original blog I got the recipe from and
you can see what they’re supposed to look like. If you go by my pictures, you
may not be tempted to make these. Mine are a far cry from the original. It’s my
own fault since I took certain liberties with the recipe.

First, I didn’t have chocolate graham crackers and I
didn’t want to bother getting any since I already had a box and a half of
regular graham cracker crumbs I wanted to use up. Second, I didn’t want to buy
sliced almonds either because I wanted to use up the pecans in my freezer. The
results of my baking willfulness is up for everyone to see.

Fortunately I care more about taste than appearance and
these were rather tasty. Then again, I love all things coconut so that didn’t
hurt. They did make a thicker bar than I expected, especially the bottom layer
so next time I might try them in a 9 x 9-inch baking pan instead. One trick I
did learn from the recipe because my magic cookie bars always end up way more
brown than what the original blog showed is to tent a piece of foil loosely
over the pan halfway through baking pan. That’ll prevent further browning while
continuing the bake the cookie bars. I’ve always known the foil trick but I had
never thought to apply it to magic cookie bars. I tried it and it worked but I
was a little concerned that the bars then looked anemic and a bit raw when
technically they weren’t. But because I thought they did, I baked them a little
longer than I might normally have. The bottom layer wasn’t dry but it wasn’t as
moist as I would’ve preferred.

Ah, a reminder of why I try not to test out new recipes
for the holidays. Still, it was more of a glitch than an outright failure and it
was good enough that I felt safe in including it in care packages I was mailing
out. Even if they weren’t very pretty.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with the mini chocolate chips (reserving a small amount), coconut and sliced almonds. Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the top and sprinkle with reserved mini chocolate chips.

Return to oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until set. Loosely tent the pan with foil halfway through baking time to prevent the coconut and almonds from browning and rotate the pan in the oven.

Cool for 30 minutes at room temperature then place in refrigerator to cool completely. Cut into 16 squares when completely cool.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

One of my favorite and easiest-to-make cakes is the
Kahlua Cake whose recipe I got from my friend Patricia years ago. It’s one of
the few, extremely rare, recipes where my baking soul is (grudgingly) okay that
it’s made with a cake mix as its base. I know, it hurts me to even say the
words “cake mix” but it’s the truth.

In peering through my pantry to clear out my baking
ingredients, I found a lone box of chocolate cake mix. I must’ve bought it for
some recipe long ago and never followed through so it has sat untouched on my
shelf until it almost reached its expiration date. The Kahlua Cake I like uses
yellow cake mix and chocolate pudding mix, both of which I did have since I had
planned to make that version of Kahlua cake for Christmas. But this recipe
seemed like a good excuse to use up the lone rider chocolate cake mix.

It was just as easy and made palatable by punching up the
chocolate flavor with a couple tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa. The Kahlua
didn’t hurt either. The cake baked beautifully and easily slid out of the Bundt
pan without protest. Score. I made the full recipe of frosting but ended up
using only half of it. Since I’m not a frosting person, I didn’t see the sense
of glopping it on an inch thick. Instead, while the cake was still a bit warm,
I spread a thin layer of frosting over it, let it melt like a drippy glaze and set then put a second thin coating over it. That seemed like plenty and my
niece, always a willing taste tester, agreed that it was the perfect cake to
frosting ratio.

The texture of this was soft and fluffy, similar to cake
mix texture so I’m a little prejudiced against it but the taste was helped by
the Kahlua and the cocoa. My niece liked this cake better than I did; this was
good but I still prefer my friend Patricia’s version. The link I got it from on pinterest goes to a site where you have to sign up to be able to access the full recipe. I don't believe in that so I've written up my own version of how I made it.

Sift together the cake mix and cocoa powder in the large bowl of a standing electric mixer. Add the Kahlua, buttermilk, oil and eggs. Beat on medium speed until well combined and glossy.

Pour into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted in the thickest part of the cake comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs (40-50 minutes, depending on your oven).

Let cool to lukewarm.

For the frosting: combine cocoa powder and water; bring to a boil, whisking smooth. Add Kahlua.

Beat butter until creamy and add cocoa mixture. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating until smooth. Add cinnamon if using. Beat until smooth and glossy. Frost thin layer over lukewarm cake and let cool until set. Apply another thin layer. Let set and serve.

Monday, December 28, 2015

You’ve heard me say repeatedly that I’m indifferent to
peanut butter. And that’s really true. Even when I add chocolate chips to
peanut butter baked goods, I still can take them or leave them. I have 2 big
Costco-sized jars of peanut butter in my pantry which are still unopened and
it’s unlikely I’ll be able to make enough peanut butter baked goods to use even
one of them. So they’re both going to the donation bin at my local library to
be distributed to a local food pantry. But that still left me with the already-opened
jar of peanut butter, also Costco-sized, since I’m incapable of shopping
elsewhere if it’s available at Costco.

The main, okay, the “only” reason I make peanut butter
cookies is to have an excuse to use the pointy side of my meat mallet to make
the crosshatches with instead of a fork. Seriously, that’s why I make peanut
butter cookies. My meat mallet has yet to ever touch a piece of meat to
tenderize it. But it knows its way around peanut butter cookie dough balls. I
give full credit to my friend Annie the Baker for teaching me that trick.

Unfortunately, it’s harder to tell with these cookies
since they spread enough that you couldn’t see the pointy indents. Bummer. I
also didn’t want to press down too hard to make the indents since I didn’t want
to flatten the cookie dough balls too much as I still had hopes for a thick
cookie. Which I got but there was enough spread to almost bake out the indents.
This cookie has only butter and no shortening so it won’t be as crisp or “dry”
as other traditional peanut butter cookies and that’s fine with me. I despise
the dry mouthfeel from those types of peanut butter cookies and prefer
something more moist. I added both peanut butter chips and mini chocolate chips
to these cookies to make them a little more interesting. Given my peanut butter
indifference, can’t say I’d rave about these but that’s literally just me. I
gave some to a coworker who loves peanut butter cookies and she did the raving
for me so I guess they’re pretty good.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together on medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs and mix on high until combined, about 1 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and peanut butter; mix on high until combined. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, toss the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Add to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Cover dough tightly and chill for at least 3 hours. Or portion into golf-size dough balls, and, using the pointy side of a meat mallet dipped in granulated sugar, press indents into dough balls, flattening into thick discs. Cover and freeze until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space cookie dough discs and bake for 11 minutes or until very lightly browned on the sides. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

I’ve confessed before that I’m a hoarder of baking
ingredients, right? I can declutter clothes, shoes and dust-catching
knickknacks with the best of them but when it comes to baking ingredients, I
buy extras like Armageddon is coming and all the survivors are going to gather
at my house for a baking marathon before the world ends. Why else would I have
4 ½ packages of Heath toffee baking bits? Although, in my defense, the plain
toffee baking bits, as opposed to the milk chocolate toffee baking bits, are
harder to come by so a friend gave me two and when I was in a grocery store I
don’t normally go to and found them there, I bought a few more. And we should
ignore the fact that I haven’t used them since.

Until now. Normally I buy the harder-to-find ingredients
because I have a recipe that uses them and I go seeking them out. Then after
all that trouble, I try to pick them up so I don’t have to search for them
again next time I need them for another recipe. Sadly, for the toffee bits, I
haven’t had cause to use them for any particular recipe. Fortunately, there’s
pinterest and you can go seeking for recipes that use the ingredient(s) you
want to use. Which is how I found this recipe for Toffee Butter Cookies.

What I love about this recipe is the simplicity. The
dough is easy to mix together and handles easily, meaning not too sticky or
soft and also not hard or crumbly. It obligingly pats into a log which make it
easy to roll up in wax paper and stick in the freezer. When you’re ready to
bake them, let the dough logs thaw for about 10-15 minutes before slicing them.
You don’t want to cut them when they’re frozen solid as that’s when they might
crumble but you also don’t want the dough to soften to room temperature as it’s
harder to cut cleanly and keep their shape.

This is not a soft and chewy cookie and, for once, I
don’t recommend underbaking. You’ll know you’ve underbaked it when it doesn’t
have the “snap” like a good shortbread and instead of chewy but not a good
chewy. Bake until the edges are golden brown and the tops also have browned
slightly. You don’t want to overbake it either or the toffee will burn. This
also defies my normal cookie-eating recommendation of eating while warm or
lukewarm. Instead, I recommend you let it cool completely before taking a bite.
When baked and cooled properly, this is a nicely crisp butter cookie with the
added sweetness and crunch from the toffee.

Divide dough in half and place on top of a sheet of plastic wrap. Form the dough into a log about 6" long and 1.5" in diameter. Wrap each log with the plastic wrap and refrigerate dough logs for 1-2 hours or until firm.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

The main impetus for trying out this recipe is I wanted
to use up the cookies and cream instant pudding mix I had bought in a pack of 4
from the last time I made a similar recipe. They don’t sell this flavor in my
local stores so I had to buy the 4-pack from amazon because that’s the only
size they came in. I also wanted to use up my snack packs of mini Oreos that I
had bought to try out another earlier recipe. You see the pattern here? I’m on
this revolving cycle of buying ingredients to try out certain recipes then
trying out more recipes to use up the rest of the ingredients I had bought for
the previous recipes.

Which would be all well and good if the cycle was
perpetual as my baking has in the past. But since I was trying to end date my
baking spurts for awhile, I had to keep using them up without replenishing
them. It’s harder than you think. Fortunately, making this cookie dough was
easy. Unfortunately I got a little lazy with chopping up the mini Oreos which
would entail washing another knife and chopping board. After making 5 cookie
doughs in a row, I didn’t have it in me to take what I deemed unnecessary
steps. That might’ve been a mistake because it did make for some serious
chunkiness in the cookies since the mini Oreos were mostly whole. But that was
okay as they did provide a nice crunch when you bit into the cookie without
needing nuts for crunchiness.

If you’re a cookies and cream fan, these are good
cookies. I added both semisweet and white chocolate chips as well as the mini
Oreos so these cookies have a lot going on. But the flavors all complement each
other and make the cookie a little more fun. I was packaging them up in for
foodie gifts to give out at work and wanted something a little different. Keep
an eye on these when you’re baking them. The edges appear to brown fairly
quickly but the middles still looked raw and shiny. You know I despise an
overbaked cookie so I erred on the side of taking them out sooner rather than
later. If I hadn’t, I think these would have a more cakey texture. And I simply
don’t do cakey when it comes to cookies.

Cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the dry pudding mix until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.

Add the salt, flour and baking soda; mix until combined. Add the chocolate chips and Oreo pieces until combined. Portion into golf-ball-sized dough balls, cover and chill or freeze until firm, several hours or overnight.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

I have a whole host of cookie recipes to post and I’m
trying to get them up before the new year when everyone goes on a diet and
stops baking. Oh wait, is that just me? In any case, remember how I said I don’t
usually try out new recipes during the holiday season because I can’t afford to
have baking failures with all the baked gifts I need to make? And also remember
how I was cutting back on baking? Well, those two mantras collided the weekend
before Christmas.

It’s true that I’ve cut back drastically on baking in
recent months. A year ago I was having a baking marathon every weekend between
Thanksgiving and Christmas – I baked for dessert parties, coworkers, get
togethers with friends, church folks, care packages and so on. By the time
Christmas rolled around, I was ready to pick up a cake from my favorite bakery
and call it Christmas dessert because I was so burned out on baking.

This year is a little different. For one thing, I didn’t
host a dessert party this year so no day off from work to bake all day. I was
down with a cold for the first half of December so I skipped out on a lot of
parties and get togethers. The days went by too fast for me to catch all of my
coworkers before they left for year-end holidays. Oops. But I did have enough
need for baked goods gifts to do one marathon baking session this past weekend.
And because I hadn’t really been baking much, I decided to take a risk and
explore all new recipes for them.

Of course, it was a very calculated risk since I wasn’t
stupid and knew there still wasn’t a lot of margin for error in baking
failures. So I went with recipes that I could tell at a glance and from the
pictures on their original blog posts that they had a high likelihood of turning
out. And I stayed with some traditional flavors since now was not the time to
do a lot of risky experiments.

Case in point, the
classic white chocolate and macadamia combination for these cookies. The
main difference from some of the other recipes I’ve tried was the browned
butter element. But browned butter is an almost no-fail option when it comes to
cookies. Seriously. I also chose this recipe because it would use up the last
of my macadamia nuts in the freezer and the last bag of white chocolate chips
in my pantry. If I was going on baking hiatus in January, it was best to clear
out my remaining baking ingredients. This turned out to be a good choice as I liked this recipe. It’s a classic combination, the
cookies didn’t spread too much and I love the brown sugar overtones of the
cookie that paired so well with the white chocolate chips and the macadamia
nuts. Yum.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally as butter foams then starts browning. When you can smell the nutty aroma and see the browned particles, it's done. Remove from heat and cool for 15 minutes.

Monday, December 21, 2015

This was the second thing I made for the bake sale fundraiser. I was sitting on my couch last Sunday, lazing away when I received an email from my cousin. Her son's school was holding a bake sale and the proceeds would be donated for relief efforts for the flood victims in Chennai.

I already had the M&M cookie dough in my freezer which I baked off but wanted to add more so I checked my pinterest board for a brownie recipe I stilll needed to try and came up with this one.

Easiest thing to mix together while the cookies were baking and it conveniently used some of the toffee bits I was trying to clear out of my pantry. Actually I'm trying to clear out a lot of baking ingredients from my pantry in anticipation of my drastic cutback in baking in January. Better to use now when they can do some good.

I only had the barest taste test of these brownies since I needed the whole thing for the bake sale. But it was enough of a sliver from the edge to assure you that the brownies were as moist and fudgy as they look in these pictures. I love when my brownies turn out like this - all chewy, fudgy goodness that says "here's what baked fudge tastes like; give 'em a try." No cakey brownies here.

In the top half of a double boiler set over hot, barely simmering water, combine the chocolate chips, butter and unsweetened chocolate. Whisk until melted and smooth. Cool slightly.

Stir in the sugar. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Add flour, mixing until just combined. Add toffee bits and stir to combine.

Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs, not raw batter. Do not overbake. Let cool completely before cutting.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

These cookies almost look the same as the ones I just posted but that's mostly because I used the red and green M&M baking bits again to make them seasonally representative. But they're a different chocolate chip cookie - they're made bigger, spread a bit more (but still stay reasonably thick) and have a bit more crunch at the edges to them.

I'm always intrigued by trying out new variations in chocolate chip cookies to see what would really make a difference. This one called for beating the egg white separately with the cream of tartar and, similar to other recipes I've tried, includes cornstarch to help make the cookies chewy.

I've known about and used the cornstarch trick before but not the egg white-cream of tartar thing. I'm not sure if it added anything different to the cookie, maybe a bit more crispness? But I couldn't tell you why,

Still this was a good cookie and so easy to make. I'd had these in my freezer for the next time I needed cookies, figuring I could bake them off for gifts but then my cousin let me know about a bake sale at her son's school with the proceeds going to help the flood victims of Chennai and I thought that was a better purpose for them. They turned out pretty well. One baking tip: to make them festive, reserve some of the baking bits for pressing on the outside of the cookie dough balls before you bake them. Otherwise, if you mix them all into the dough, not that many baking bits will appear and you want them flaunting their holiday glory after they're baked.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheets for several minutes before transferring cookies to wire racks and cool completely.